CAUTION WHEN CHOOSING OIL

[the Ferret]

What is 100c ?

[Ack-CB11_imp]

What is 100c ?

Degrees in Celsius.

[the Ferret]

How does a testing company test a small sample for that?

[Ack-CB11_imp]

They bring it up to temp and read the viscosity.
100c and 40c are the temps used for testing new oil.
I think the Shell starts at 15.5 new and wears down with miles and temp. At 3600 miles I'd say in the 12's?
For used oil testing they only do the 100c.

[the Ferret]

Hmm interesting.

What number would indicate the oil is no longer lubricating?

[Ack-CB11_imp]

The TBN and Viscosity ratings.
In the BMW Boxer world oil is a HUGE subject matter.
I've learned a lot about oil since my 1st one.

[the Ferret]

Ack..I don't understand (probably never will lol)

I think in ALL forums, oil discussions are HUGE. which I find amazing considering the few oil related failures we read about in motorcycles (as in zero)

[Ack-CB11_imp]

Ack..I don't understand (probably never will lol)

I think in ALL forums, oil discussions are HUGE. which I find amazing considering the few oil related failures we read about in motorcycles (as in zero)

I agree, even with only the slightest maintenance with the cheapest parts they'll go forever.
It does seem the forums with all the oil threads do have the most trouble?

[flynrider]

Flynrider Wrote:
Update : I got the test results back from Blackstone and the news was good. After running all summer (and fall) in some pretty ugly temps, 3600 miles total, the switch to synthetic Rotella did the trick. The viscosity reading in the report was actually higher than expected. Much better than my results with the dino version.

What did the viscosity @100c burn down to?
[/quote]
Hey Ack,

The cSt Viscosity @ 100C came out at 17.6. Blackstone's expected average for the sample was 11.6 - 15.3. Some of that can be attributed to make-up oil that was added at 2500 miles, but overall it's still pretty good.

By comparison the dino Rotella that I ran and tested a few summers back came out at 7.0 after 3K miles of summer riding. Samples for cooler months were in the normal range, so I surmised that the heat was having a significant effect on the viscosity break down.

[furious_blue_imp]

Ack..I don't understand (probably never will lol)

I think in ALL forums, oil discussions are HUGE. which I find amazing considering the few oil related failures we read about in motorcycles (as in zero)

Good point. I suspect that in cases of oil failure the result usually isn't a catastrophic failure (like a seized piston or a rod out the bottom), instead it is probably just general engine wear accelerated, the engine just wears out sooner than it would have otherwise and when it does wear sooner we have little to compare that with to know that that's what happened.